Rudy has restyled Vieja more than a few times, for both good and bad reasons. The bike received its current makeover because of an accident. “It was a rainy night, and that version of the bike was lacking a front brake. I was trying to slow down for a left hand turn and locked up the rear brake. The bike slipped out from under me, I laid her down, and I busted up her whole left side real good. I rode the bike all the way home with a pair of broken ribs that I didn’t discover until the next day,” Rudy said. Luckily, he wasn’t badly injured and the bike didn’t suffer any serious structural damage. Figuring he would have to replace a bunch of parts anyway, Rudy decided to spice up the bike’s looks from its former stock semblance, while keeping the majority of the driveline mechanically original and factory reliable.

Rudy decided to tear the bike down to the frame, even with his wife’s misgivings about all the motorcycle parts piled around their normally tidy garage. With the bike in pieces, he cut off unnecessary tabs from the frame and kicked the neck rake out to 39-degrees — a big change from the stock 32 degree angle. The new neck angle created new front-end geometry and to correct the bike’s trail he used a wide glide-style Pro-One 41mm front end with six-degree raked triple trees that required the legs to be extended six-inches. Hi-Lo Air Suspension adjustable shocks suspend the swing arm, and he mounted the on-board mini air compressor to the splashguard, positioned in front of the swing arm pivot shaft.

With the driveline separate from the frame he decided to strip the black wrinkle finish from the motor and the transmission and bring out the natural beauty of the cast aluminum. “I used aircraft paint remover with old toothbrushes and tweezers and it took me six weeks to get the black finish off the parts. I couldn’t use anything too abrasive because the sand cast surface is surprisingly soft,” Rudy said. Once the parts were stripped of their coatings, he polished the edges of the fins on the cylinders and heads for added flash and to further alter the motor’s appearance. The accident did harm the outer cover of the original primary drive, providing the opportunity to try more exotic methods of transferring power from the motor to the transmission. Rudy opted for the simplistic design of RoadMax’s three-inch open belt primary coupled with a Rivera clutch.

When Rudy originally bought wheels for this version of the bike, he picked up a pair of American Wire Wheel matching 60-spoke stock replacements for the front and back. The wheels didn’t match for long. While riding the bike in northern California on Interstate 80, he hit a pothole in the road that severely bent the rim but didn’t puncture the inner tube. Obviously putting a damper on the rest of the ride, he turned the bike around and limped the bike home over 100 miles. This led to a new front wheel; he picked up an 80-spoker and didn’t worry about matching the rear because its 60-spokes are somewhat concealed by a Pro-One rotor on right side and a pulley on the left. Rudy doubts anyone will compare the number of spokes on each wheel, but future plans include an identical spoke count for the wheel in the back.

With the number of parts he had to replace added to the number of modifications he made to the bike, he might have saved time building a custom from scratch. It could have been worse, but rebuilding the bike was still a daunting task — not that Rudy would ever give up on his beloved Vieja. First he purchased all new sheet metal for her: a Diamond 21” front fender was fit to the front end, a Russ Wernimont Long Shot rear fender was transformed into a strut-less version, a Drag Specialties five-gallon flush top gas tank was secured to the frame’s backbone tube, and a Drag horseshoe style oil tank with extended sides and top fill was added underneath the seat. Next, he got a pair of Chubby’s inch and a quarter diameter 16” ape hanger handlebars mounted to the triple trees with one-inch H-D risers and hand controls, Pro-One billet grips, and a Drag Specialties mirror. Pro-One forward controls were bolted to the frame rails, a Headwinds Concours five and three-quarter-inch headlight illuminates the road and a Pro-One taillight/license plate combo (mounted on the back of the primary) maintaining a slight guise of legality while lacking turn signals and a horn.

He finished the bike by painting the sheet metal and frame. “Some guys think the color green is bad luck but not me. The bike has seen three revisions and each time there’s always some green color,” Rudy said. He chose House of Kolor Kandy Lime Gold over a Pagan Gold and Kameleon metalflake base coat with silver and gold leaf graphics and pin striping all by James Dean at Rebel Designs. Rudy says that when people see the bike they either love the color or hate it. No doubt the ones that hate it are simply green with envy.